Fantasy, SF, and Horror books you'd recommend

[onehitwanda]

For anyone recommending The Lord of the Rings: "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" by Tad Williams is the closest approximation to it that I've come across in terms of beauty and depth of worldbuilding. But it's also an excellent story in its own right, very compelling with barely any sag.

I need to read it again, I think I was fourteen the last time I saw these books.

 

[onehitwanda]

I love a lot of William Gibson's stuff, including the Sprawl books, but I think I like Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash even more. It's kind of a parody of Gibsonian cyberpunk, but it's also a hilarious and badass cyberpunk story in its own right.

That was the first paragraph of the book, and is describing the protagonist -- whose name is Hiro Protagonist -- a mafia-employed pizza delivery driver and freelance hacker

Have you read Diamond Age?

If you haven't, you should, firstly because the primary protagonist, Nell, is amazing and secondly, because there's a very strong possibility that YT from Snow Crash becomes Nell's mentor and favourite teacher.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/86288/is-miss-matheson-from-diamond-age-yt-from-snow-crash

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I need to read it again, I think I was fourteen the last time I saw these books.

To be honest, my impression of the books is quite the opposite of SS's. It's classic fantasy, of course, but the storytelling is pretty bad. I remember them as the "this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened" approach, rather than the "this happened, therefore this happened, and therefore this happened" approach. Worldbuilding is pretty weak, too.

I see the books' relative success mostly as a testimony to the time when fantasy was very scarce, and people were thankful for any kind of fantastic stories.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I loved The Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer

I loved the first three - and then it collapsed into a confusion of 'gods did it'. I was very disappointed.

I also nominate The Day the Martians Came (Frederik Pohl). And John Wyndham, for Chocky on the SF front, and The Chrysalids and Survival for horror.

I didn't mention HHGTTG because I don't think of it as SF, just a story about Brits that happens to be set in space. As they used to say about Red Dwarf, it's not a SF sitcom, it's just a sitcom that happens to be set in space (and highly recommended!)

 

[TheRedChamber]

For anyone recommending The Lord of the Rings: "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" by Tad Williams is the closest approximation to it that I've come across in terms of beauty and depth of worldbuilding. But it's also an excellent story in its own right, very compelling with barely any sag.

In the middle of this at the moment. Has possibly the slowest start of any book I've every read but gets into gear eventually. And at the paragraph level, the dude can certainly write.

I'm going to recommend Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange (that's one book) by Susannna Clarke. The basic salespitch is what if Dickens had written a book about wizards in the Napoleonic Wars.

There also doesn't seem to be any Arthur C Clarke according to a quick scan of the big list. 2001 and Rama are the obvious choices, but my nerd-hipster choice is A Fall of Moondust about a group of ordinary passengers trapped under a dust avalache on the moon.

Alice in Wonderland is an obvious ommision from the list.

No one has recommended C.S. Lewis. Good!

 

[crookedletter]

The Lefthand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin. The lady can spin a tale that will have you on an emotional roller coaster.

This. Along with The Dispossessed, and really anything by Le Guin.

More recently I've discovered Adrian Tchaikovsky. Children of Time and its two (soon to be three, I think) sequels are very good, if you're into the idea of a deep dive into weird, with uplifted sentient societies of spiders and octopuses and corvids. I haven't read any of his others, yet -- guy cranks em out -- but I plan to.

If you're okay with very dense wordy writing, China Mieville is fantastic. His Bas Lag books -- starting with Perdido Street Station -- are weird and creepy and dark and awesome. About as good world building as I've seen.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Oh and to make a political point, I nominate The Illiad and Odyssey by Homer, the Tempest by William Shakespeare and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Also theoretically Beowulf and Morte de Arthur but I'm not sure I'm recommending actually reading those.

 

[crookedletter]

Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange (that's one book) by Susannna Clarke

I love this one too. I wish it wasn't seven million pages long, so I could drum up the motivation to reread it, as it's been years.

 

[StillStunned]

I need to read it again, I think I was fourteen the last time I saw these books.

To be honest, my impression of the books is quite the opposite of SS's. It's classic fantasy, of course, but the storytelling is pretty bad. I remember them as the "this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened" approach, rather than the "this happened, therefore this happened, and therefore this happened" approach. Worldbuilding is pretty weak, too.

I see the books' relative success mostly as a testimony to the time when fantasy was very scarce, and people were thankful for any kind of fantastic stories.

In the middle of this at the moment. Has possibly the slowest start of any book I've every read but gets into gear eventually. And at the paragraph level, the dude can certainly write.

I listened to the audiobooks a few years ago, and they hold up better than (for instance) The Wheel of Time. The writing, as @TheRedChamber notes, is excellent.

I also think the overall plot holds together very well. It's far less fragmented than WoT, and while the worldbuilding is less novel, and leans heavily on LotR, it all feels very natural. Nowhere does the story drag, or feel like the author was making it up as he went along. It feels like a tapestry, compared with the patchwork quilt of WoT or ASOIAF.

 

[crookedletter]

I credit the Wheel of Time with teaching me it's okay to quit books/series. I was seven or eight books in, and committed to powering through for another six or seven or however many there are. Then I realized that's fucking nuts, and have been happily casting aside books that aren't doing it for me ever since.

 

[StillStunned]

Also theoretically Beowulf and Morte de Arthur but I'm not sure I'm recommending actually reading those.

Anyone trying to tackle Mallory's Morte D'Arthur* should avoid the Caxton version. His organisation into the various "books" makes no sense from a storytelling point of view, only a printing point of view. Luckily you can get it in its original 8 books (as opposed to 20, I think, in the Caxton version) that make far more sense.

*There are other Morte D'Arthurs. I'm pretty sure I have at least two non-Mallory versions.

 

[onehitwanda]

I'm going to recommend Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange (that's one book) by Susannna Clarke. The basic salespitch is what if Dickens had written a book about wizards in the Napoleonic Wars.

*INTENSE SQUEALING*

Oh my God, how did I forget this one? I loved it.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I'm going to recommend Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange (that's one book) by Susannna Clarke. The basic salespitch is what if Dickens had written a book about wizards in the Napoleonic Wars.

Counterpoint: Norrell couldn't be more boring unless it consisted of just the letter "n" for the entire book. It's stunningly lacking in anything.

I guess it's well-formatted and grammatically correct, so it has two virtues.

--Annie

 

[StillStunned]

I guess it's well-formatted and grammatically correct, so it has two virtues.

*INTENSE SQUEALING*

 

[onehitwanda]

I credit the Wheel of Time with teaching me it's okay to quit books/series. I was seven or eight books in, and committed to powering through for another six or seven or however many there are. Then I realized that's fucking nuts, and have been happily casting aside books that aren't doing it for me ever since.

I never threw a book until I read a certain scene in Game of Thrones. Strangely, it wasn't the Red Wedding, or Brienne being hanged... it was where Arya got blinded.

I threw the book so hard at the wall that it left a mark, and I didn't read any further.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Reads @TheWritingGroup 's comment, starts to mentally compose and indignant response. Reads @onehitwanda 's, decides to abandon response.

 

[Statius]

For anyone recommending The Lord of the Rings: "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" by Tad Williams is the closest approximation to it that I've come across in terms of beauty and depth of worldbuilding. But it's also an excellent story in its own right, very compelling with barely any sag.

Great series, along with the 4 part series he wrote after, that I cannot remember the name of

 

[Kelliezgirl]

It's probably OK for people reading this forum, but be aware that Chalker really, really liked writing erotically charged sex change (and physical transformations in general, but sex change).

--Annie

Not in that series... unless I completely missed something.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Asimov has been mentioned several times, but I'd add "The God's Themselves".
It's one of his standalone novels. Asimov's weakness was always he wasn't the greatest in creating characters, but in that book he creates some of the best aliens I've ever read. They aren't just green humans. The story alternates between their point of view and the humans.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Not in that series... unless I completely missed something.

You mean, besides (SPOILER)
The hero, Joe, repeatedly turning into a wood nymph?

Other transformations include Chalker's go-to "woman turning into magical nymphomaniac, often with reduced intelligence."

--Annie

 

[Areala-chan]

I never threw a book until I read a certain scene in Game of Thrones. Strangely, it wasn't the Red Wedding, or Brienne being hanged... it was where Arya got blinded.

I threw the book so hard at the wall that it left a mark, and I didn't read any further.

You made it farther than I did. My "fuck this book" moment came when Martin devoted entirely too many words to how 'lovingly' Drogo raped his new child bride. I think that's, like, page one-fourteen? A hundred twenty? Yeah, no, fuck all the way off with that horse shit.

 

[onehitwanda]

You made it farther than I did. My "fuck this book" moment came when Martin devoted entirely too many words to how 'lovingly' Drogo raped his new child bride. I think that's, like, page one-fourteen? A hundred twenty? Yeah, no, fuck all the way off with that horse shit.

... I think I'd successfully suppressed that memory. Either that or I knew what was coming and skipped quite a bit.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

You mean, besides (SPOILER)
The hero, Joe, repeatedly turning into a wood nymph?

Other transformations include Chalker's go-to "woman turning into magical nymphomaniac, often with reduced intelligence."

--Annie

The thing with Joe was played for comedic effect and wasn't really sexualized. Everything happened off camera.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Alright - off to a room, you two.

Shh! People are fucking reading here!

 

[SimonDoom]

Peter Straub

Ghost Story

Strong thumbs up for Ghost Story. One of the best horror novels I've ever read. I read it and thought, "Damn, that's what a well-written horror novel can be."